Edo Multibillionaire Stormwater Project: The Big Probe *You’ll Burn Your Fingers – Edo APC Warns Obaseki

By Sir Ralph Okhiria

The bitter political rivalry between the Edo State governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki and his estranged godfather and immediate past governor of the state, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has again be rekindle with Obaseki’s threat to probe the multibillionaire Stormwater project awarded by Oshiomhole.

Governor Obaseki dropped the hints while inspecting the Textile Mill Road catchment of the project in Benin City, the state capital, expressed disaffection over the award of the N30 billion Benin stormwater project by the Oshiomhole-led administration in the state, saying it was a ploy to defraud Edo people.

Recall that the former governor (Oshiomhole) in 2011 awarded the contract for the Benin Stormwater Project with much celebration and bursted several bottles of expensive champagne, informing the people that the project when completed would checkmate the ravaging floods most parts of the state capital.

But Obaseki who was visibly angry at the project site, said the stormwater project, was conceived and designed not to work for the benefit of Edo people, adding that his administration will probe the project and recover all the money stolen through it.

“You can see for yourself that the so-called stormwater project was a fraud; it was a contract to defraud Edo people. From what I can see now, the stormwater project in this catchment area was never designed to take water away from the area.

“The area was never drained. You can see the level of what we are doing now as compared with that of the previous administration,” he said.

Obaseki noted, “It is almost two-meter difference. There is no way you can drain water from a low land into a higher ground. We say we have experts and paid over N30 billion for this project. The person that supervised this project today calls himself a minister supervising bigger projects for the Federal Government. This is not acceptable.”

He added that the previous administration spent huge sums of money on the water storm project claiming that on completion, it will drain water from the area and restore the property of Edo people living in that area.

He assured Edo people that his administration will do everything necessary to drain the area and restore life to the people, noting, “They spent N30 billion claiming that they want to take away the suffering of Edo people, de-flood the area and restore value to the people’s property. Look at what has happened now to this project for five years.

“With what we have done now with less amount of money, we are going to finally drain this area and bring back life to the people in this catchment area. I don’t like probing but this time we have to set up a panel to get the facts of what happened. We can’t throw away such a large amount of money. People must be made to account for their time in service in government.
“They have to explain to us how they spent the N30 billion on a project they claim will drain water from a community. But the project drains the water to nowhere. They have the boldness to claim that we abandoned the project which were never made or designed to work in the first place.

“Clearly, we will take the necessary precaution to recover all the money due to Edo people that was stolen from this project”, Governor Obaseki concluded.
But state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) which Oshiomhole headed as national chairman before he was kicked out unceremoniously, dared Governor Obaseki to make good his threat, warning that his fingers will be badly burned in the process.

The party, in a statement endorsed by its State Publicity Secretary, Chris Azebamwan, urged the governor to institute the storm water probe and make its findings public so that the very enlightened and informed Edo people would know the truth of the matter.

“Edo people know that the project was jointly handled by the State Environment and Public Utilities and Works with several commissioners.

“While the project was ongoing, Obaseki (as chairman of the Economic Team), regularly accompanied his predecessor to inspect the progress of work after he played the key role of sourcing the first N25 billion from the Capital Market through his company, Afrinvest, which reportedly got N1.5billion commission from the deal.

“The commission paid to Afrinvest was for acting as Consultants to the project and drafting the project proposal which, Obaseki as the Head of Economic team presented for approval to the State Executive Council and followed it up by shortlisting contractors for the project.

“It will be comical and equally ingenious of the Governor to carry out this probe. It will not only be revealing but end up as a milestone which could well turn out to become a benchmark for the country”, the APC posited.

The big question now is that can Governor Obaseki truly and sincerely probe the Stormwater project as he boasted to Edo people? Was it a mere political statement as it was with the case of the question able multibillionaire “5-Star Hospital” which was initiated and executed by the Oshiomhole-led administration but didn’t work until it was privatised, three years after?

The governor about two years ago had promised, even at the prompting of the state house of assembly under the leadership of Alhaji Kabiru Adjoto, to follow up with a probe, on the damming can of worms discovered in the hospital contract award, but up till now nothing has been done.

Has Obaseki suddenly woke up from his slumber? Was his probe threat an emotional statement? Does he have the capacity and political will to probe his former master? Edo people are watching.

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